VZPON IN ZATON PTUJSKE USNJARSKE ČETRTI OB REKI DRAVI
RISE AND DEMISE OF PTUJ LEATHER MANUFACTURERS’ QUARTER NEXT TO THE DRAVA RIVER

Summary/Abstract: On the basis of literature and sources kept in the Historical Archive in Ptuj and in the Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv Graz the author presents in her contribution the activity of the leather manufacturers of Ptuj in the 19th and 20th century. Since the 13th century the leather manufacturers lived and worked in their own town quarter located next to the Drava River. Until the Craftsman’s Law was issued in the year 1859 the leather manufacturers of Ptuj had been incorporated into the Leather Craftsmen Guild. They possessed a house in Dravska ulica with a built-in guild sign where they were, until the World War II. In the second half of the 19th century the guilds were dissolved on the basis of the Craftsman’s Law. Craftsmen of various trades incorporated themselves into newly established associations. At that time period three leather manufacturers of Ptuj began to develop: Franc Potočnik and the leather working families Gorijup and Pirich. On the example of the Pirich’s leather factory the author showed the development of leather industry in Ptuj. Between the two World Wars a leather manufacturing stock company was active in Ptuj known under the name Poetovia Leather Industry, stock company, Breg near Ptuj. Beside leather and leather gallantry POETOVIA produced above all shoes »Humanic-Pia«. The successor of Poetovia was »Paul Pirich Leather Factory –Lederfabrik« that was on November 8, 1947 deleted from the judicial register. Therewith, a several hundred years old tradition of leather working in Ptuj has come to an end.

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